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D. Don Kelly
Center opened its first truly public gallery, museum, research library and museum store on Vine Street, tantalizingly close to, but not in, the focal point of Philadelphia’s art community. Today, The Center for Art in Wood is undergoing a remarkable transformation, moving into an expansive new location among Old City Philadelphia’s art galleries on North Third Street between Arch and Race streets. The new space accommodates its collection of more than 1,000 art objects, a research library, a gallery for special exhibits and a museum store. All of the new Center’s materials are available to the public. This celebratory exhibition, Turning to Art in Wood: A Creative Journey, opens at the Center in November 2011. It celebrates the evolution of the Center and its collection over 25 years of nonprofit service to the field. The exhibition and collection reflect the genre of wood turning that has experienced explosive and exciting growth in a complex art world. The exhibition is documented in a unique, large, boxed portfolio of the same name. Containing commentary, history, professional and personal reflections, striking color plates and thumbnails of more than 1,000 objects, the anniversary portfolio presents the wide-ranging art objects that the Center has selected over time from artists around the United States and the world. Richard R. Goldberg, a Philadelphia real estate attorney and President of the Center’s Board of Trustees, writes that the portfolio and exhibition: are a celebration of the nonprofit Wood Turning Center’s 25 years of enthusiastically promoting artists working in wood and putting their art before the public. This project is also a celebration of
Albert LeCoff’s 35 years of working tirelessly to stimulate, show, and enjoy the work of emerging and established artists. Albert’s work in the first 10 years is what made the next 25 years possible and so successful. The portfolio also is a flashback on all the small and large things that have been accomplished, utilizing the Center’s unique library and archives and Albert’s personal papers and files. Both resources document and track the letters, drafts, edits and final products for over 92 exhibits, 18 publications and 35 conferences, organized from 1976 by Albert and later by him and the Wood Turning Center after it incorporated in 1986.
Black Walnut Bowl, 1979 walnut 7.25 x 6.25 The Center for Art in Wood’s Museum Collection E. David Pye Study in Flower Form, ca. 1980 wood 6.5 x 7 x 3 The Center for Art in Wood’s Museum Collection 1995.01.01.185.01P F. Virginia Dotson
The portfolio documents the 25,000 books, papers and artists’ files to track and demonstrate the evolution of the art form from pure wood turning to diverse variations as the artists expanded their universes and those of viewers. Albert's interest has always been to stimulate their creativity and give them ways to show it to the public.
Calligraphy Bowl, 1990 Baltic birch, wenge, walnut 5.75 x 14.75 The Center for Art in Wood’s Museum Collection 1995.01.01.043P G. Left to Right Jake Brubaker Saffron Container, 1977
The exhibition is curated by Gerard Brown, a professor at Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. Goldberg describes him spending numerous joyous hours studying the Center’s collection, resource library, and visiting other substantial wood collections, and interviewing collectors and artists concurrent with his teaching workload in the studio craft programs at Temple. His interpretations and insights in this book provide a very fresh lens on the artists who work in wood and the impacts the Center has had in exhibiting these items.
rosewood 6 x 2.5 The Center for Art in Wood’s Museum Collection promised gift of Albert & Tina LeCoff Saffron Container with Tail, 1978 Swedish birch 4.5 x 3 The Center for Art in Wood’s Museum Collection promised gift of Albert & Tina LeCoff H.
Brown has written two insightful essays for the portfolio: Contours of a Community, on
Mike Darlow Graffiti Bowl, 1987 wood, stainless steel, paint 8 x 13 The Center for Art in Wood’s Museum Collection d onated by Arthur & Jane Mason 1995.01.01.034G
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